Debian packaging

[heiserhorn]

Hello,

I am considering hiving rayforge included in the debian repos. I am going to open an ITP soon for it.

I see you have a PPA for ubuntu and maybe I can leverage some of the work done in the PPA for the debian Packaging, could you point me to it?

[knipknap]

Thanks for your interest in getting Rayforge into Debian -- that would be a great addition.

The good news is that the repository already has a complete debian/ directory with all the packaging files you need as a starting point. Here is a quick overview of what is available:

• debian/control -- the package metadata, dependencies, and description. It lists all runtime deps (GTK4, libadwaita, libvips, various Python modules) and build deps (cargo, cython3, maturin, rustc, etc.).
• debian/rules -- the build rules using dh with pybuild. It handles version patching, vendoring a few Python packages that are not in the Ubuntu/Debian repos (vtracer, pyvips, asyncudp, trimesh), and skips tests during the build.
• debian/changelog -- currently at version 0.1.0-1.
• debian/copyright -- MIT license, properly formatted for DEP-5.
• debian/requirements-bundle.txt -- the four Python packages that get vendored during build.
• scripts/build-deb.sh -- the full build script that creates the upstream tarball, vendors the wheels, and builds both source and binary packages. This is what the CI uses.
• .github/workflows/publish-deb.yml -- the GitHub Actions workflow that builds the .deb, tests it, signs it, and uploads to the PPA at ppa:knipknap/rayforge for Ubuntu Noble (24.04).

A few things to keep in mind for a Debian upload:

• The vendored packages (vtracer, pyvips, asyncudp, trimesh) may need to be packaged separately or replaced with Debian-native equivalents if the FTP masters have concerns about embedded libraries.
• The current debian/changelog targets unstable, which is correct for a Debian upload.
• The debian/rules has an override for dh_clean that preserves vendored sources -- you may want to revisit that for Debian policy compliance.
• The build currently targets Ubuntu Noble. For Debian, you will need to verify that all build and runtime dependencies are available in the target Debian release (likely Trixie or Sid).

Feel free to ping @knipknap if you need help with any of the specifics. Good luck with the ITP!

[heiserhorn]

Thanks.

I will start looking at the vendored packages as embedded libraries would not work.

Will keep you posted

[heiserhorn]

So

trimesh is the only one that is in debian but is outdated. I am pinging the maintainer to see the status. The other 3 would need to be packaged and I have seen you already did an inquiry for vtracer.

[heiserhorn]

So it looks like more work intensive than expected.

• vtracer requires visioncortex which requires flo-curves. None are in Debian yet.
• pyvips looks like to have all required dependencies
• asyncudp looks like to have all required dependencies

[heiserhorn]

I just packaged flo-curves for debian here: https://github.com/heiserhorn/flo_curves are you by any chance a Debian maintainer with upload rights?